1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a weather strip for a motor vehicle, and more particularly, to a structure of an end portion thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Weather strips are generally formed by extrusion. The extruded weather strip extends straight and has a uniform cross-section. When an end portion of the weather strip is required to have a cross-section different from that of the remaining portion thereof, the end portion has been conventionally formed by molding.
In the motor vehicle as shown in FIG. 8, in order to seal an edge defining a door opening, and a door frame 30 of a closed door 3, a weather strip is continuously attached along a front pillar 1 and a roof-side portion 2.
As shown in FIG. 9, this weather strip 5 is composed of a first weather strip 5A to be attached along the front pillar 1, and a second weather strip 5B to be attached along the roof-side portion 2, and a molded connecting portion 5C to be attached along a corner portion A of the door opening in FIG. 8.
The first weather strip 5A has a sealing portion 52 of a Pl-shaped cross-section, as shown in FIG. 10. This sealing portion 52 extends from a base portion 51, and is retained by the front pillar 1.
In some types of motor vehicles, the height of a side portion 10 of this pillar 1 gradually increases in an upper corner portion of the pillar 1. In order to improve both an outer appearance and sealing properties of the weather strip 5, it is preferable to gradually increase the height of the sealing portion 52 to match with the increase in height of the side portion 10 of the front pillar 1.
To this end, there has been adopted means of forming a long molded connecting portion 5C, and gradually increasing the height of the sealing portion 52 of the molded connecting portion 5C, as shown in FIG. 11. There has been also adopted another means of cutting off the sealing portion 52 of the end portion of the first weather strip 5A, and forming the sealing portion 52 having a gradually increasing height in the end portion of the first weather strip 5A by molding integrally with the molded connecting potion 5C, as shown in FIG. 12.
Rubber extruded body such as the weather strips 5A, 5B considerably differs from the molded body such as the molded connecting portion 5C in luster and color. Accordingly, in the above-described conventional means wherein a large area of the molded portion is exposed to the outside, the different in luster and color between the extruded portion and the molded portion is clearly perceived so that the outer appearance of the weather strip is deteriorated.